title: Hydrogen production by tuning the photonic band gap with the electronic band gap of TiO₂.
abstract: Tuning the photonic band gap (PBG) to the electronic band gap (EBG) of Au/TiO2 catalysts resulted in considerable enhancement of the photocatalytic water splitting to hydrogen under direct sunlight. Au/TiO2 (PBG-357 nm) photocatalyst exhibited superior photocatalytic performance under both UV and sunlight compared to the Au/TiO2 (PBG-585 nm) photocatalyst and both are higher than Au/TiO2 without the 3 dimensionally ordered macro-porous structure materials. The very high photocatalytic activity is attributed to suppression of a fraction of electron-hole recombination route due to the co-incidence of the PBG with the EBG of TiO2 These materials that maintain their activity with very small amount of sacrificial agents (down to 0.5 vol.% of ethanol) are poised to find direct applications because of their high activity, low cost of the process, simplicity and stability.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemical Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
authors.forename: G I N
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Waterhouse
authors.forename: A K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Wahab
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Al-Oufi
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Jovic
authors.forename: D H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Anjum
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Sun-Waterhouse
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Llorca
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Idriss